1965–1975: A miracle decade for DRC

Summary form only given. In the early days, the Device Research Conference (DRC) has played a seminal role in the initial announcement of breakthroughs that led to new and improved devices and chips found in today's semiconductor market menu. I will briefly cite personal and collegial examples of compound semiconductor breakthroughs that occurred during what I view as the miracle decade of 1965-1975. I cite this era because during it, the following electronic and photonic devices first appeared either at the DRC or in related journals: the invention development high efficiency, Si doped, IR emitting GaAs LEDs, the first working devices based on the AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction (HJ), e.g. AlGaAs HBTs, AlGaAs lasers, AlGaAs LEDs, cw AlGaAs lasers, state-of-the-art AlGaAs/GaAs high efficiency solar cells, and semiconductor lift which is used in the current state of the art single junction AlGaAs/GaAs solar cell. All of these were first realized via liquid phase epitaxy (LPE). The impact of these breakthroughs later led to the high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), GaInP based red and yellow LEDs and GaN based blue-green, blue, UV, and white emitting LEDs, and blue lasers. Along the way the AlGaAs/GaAs HJ and the GaN HJ has produced three Nobel Prizes: the 1998 prize for the quantum Hall Effect to Laughlin, Stormer and Tsui; half of the 2000 HJ prize to Kroemer and Alferov; the 2014 prize for blue LEDs to Akasaki, Amano, and Nakamura. HJ technology has found its way into Si based HBTs using germanium. And there are even reports of quantum wire structures employing HJs! Finally, as a former DRC program committee member, I would like to close with the following observation. The era of breakthrough device results that are likely to have a high impact is probably behind us. In its place is the ongoing search for innovations in wires and new 2-D materials and films, i.e fishing trips. This is currently mostly in the realm of materials science and engineering. With this in mind I encourage the current program committees to lower the bar and seek out early, provisional, and possibly interesting device results in this new era with the understanding that they may not be of lasting importance.